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India accounted for 9 percent of all international arms imports from 2006 to 2010, and is expected to keep the top spot for the foreseeable future as it upgrades its air force, army and navy. This is not the first time that a defense deal in India has been mired in allegations that a company paid millions of dollars in kickbacks to Indian officials. In the 1980s, then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's government collapsed over charges that the Swedish gun manufacturer Bofors AB paid bribes to supply Howitzer field guns to the Indian army. Following the Bofors scandal, India banned middlemen in all defense deals. From 2007 to 2011, Finmeccanica won an average of 250 million euros ($334 million) per year in orders from the Indian government, and aimed to double that by 2015. Analysts say that ambition could be jeopardized if the current allegations prove to be true. Orsi took over the post of CEO in May 2011 from Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, who in December of that year also ceded the chairmanship to Orsi under government pressure due to allegations of a slush fund. That investigation has since been closed without charges. Orsi, who was jailed on Tuesday, was being questioned by prosecutors north of Milan. The CEO of AgustaWestland is under house arrest.
[Associated
Press;
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